Coin transfer bank



1967 J. D. NADHERNY COIN TRANSFER BANK 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 4, 1966 JOH/V 0. NADHERNY BY WW L Wfifiww ATTORNEYS Jan. 24, 1967 J. D. NADHERNY 3,299,899

COIN TRANSFER BANK Filed April 4, 1966 2 She ts-S eet 2 INVENTOR, (JOHN D. NADHERNY ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,299,899 COIN TRANSFER BANK John D. Nadherny, Northlake, Ill., assignor to Harold Spector and Raymond B. Spector, a partnership, doing business as Superior Toy & Manufacturing Co.

Filed Apr. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 539,874 9 Claims. (Cl. 133-3) This invention rel-ates to a coin transfer bank wherein coin transfer discs are geared together and are operable to effect transfer of coins of different denominations back and forth until they are properly deposited in separate coin receiving pockets, the device thereby automatically sorting the coins to place them in the proper pockets.

One object of the invention is to provide a coin transfer bank of this general character in the form of a novelty from the standpoint that the gears, coin carrying discs, coin chutes and coin receiving pockets are at least in part formed of transparent plastic or similar material so that the action of the gears and coins may be observed by the operator of the bank, thus encouraging children especially to save money by accumulating coins in the bank.

Another object is to provide a coin transfer bank which can be inexpensively produced from parts formed of plastic material and assembled together by cementing or the like.

Still another object is to provide a coin bank in which gears and coin carrying discs rotate in a plane inclined from the vertical so that the coins in notches of the discs may be slid around on a partition until notches of two adjacent discs match each other and permit transfer of the coins by gravity from one disc to a next lower disc, the partitions having openings of different size therein which are progressively larger as the coins are advanced down the partition until one of the openings matches the coin and receives it thereby conducting the coin through the proper chute to the proper coin receiving pocket for thus sorting out all coins regardless of denomination which are inserted into a coin receiving slot of the bank.

Still a further object is to provide crank means for manually rotating the gears and coin receiving discs or an electric motor for automatically rotating them, the electric motor having control means to effect energization of the motor upon insertion of a coin into the bank and further means to terminate its energization upon a predetermined number of rotations of the gears and coin receiving discs sufiicient to insure that a coin of largest denomination (which takes the longest time to be deposited) is properly deposited.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of my coin transfer bank, whereby the objects above contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed'out in my claims and illustrated in detail on the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a coin transfer bank embodying my invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section-a1 View therethrough on the line 22 of FIG. 1, FIG. 1 being tipped up and viewed in the direction of the arrow 1 adjacent FIG. 2;

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are diagrammatic views of the upper two, and FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 of the upper three coin receiving discs in various progressive positions showing the transfer of a coin from one disc to the next lower disc; and

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic view of an automatic motor drive for a modified form of my coin transfer bank.

On accompanying drawings, I have used the reference numerals 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 to indicate coin carrying discs which are arranged in a plane slightly inclined to 3,299,899 Patented Jan. 24, 1967 the vertical as shown in FIG. 2, the discs being positioned between a housing front wall 16 and a partition 19. The discs are journaled on stub shafts 37 and have their peripheries adjacent each other as shown dotted in FIG. 1

and by solid lines in FIGS. 4-8 inclusive. The housing for the discs also includes a bottom wall 17 and a back wall 18 as well as suitable side walls 20. The bottom 17 is provided with a wall 47 forming a floor for the currency-receiving pocket 39 and a partial partition 48 serves to journal the inner end of a shaft 27.

The coin carrying discs 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are provided with notches 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 respectively. Gears 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35 are provided for the discs 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 respectively and may be separate from the discs and cemented thereto, or the discs and gears may be formed integral with each other as found suitable. Under each of the coin-carrying discs 11, 12, 13 and 14 is a coin-supporting flange 61, 62, 63 and 64 respectively, the purpose of which will hereinafter appear.

The gears 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35 intermesh with each other as shown in FIG. 1 and are driven by a pinion 30. The pinion 30 is adapted to be manually rotated by an operating crank 26 secured to the shaft 27, bevel gears 28 and 29 being provided to transmit rotation of the crank 26 to the pinion 30. The bevel gear 29 and the pinion 30 are mounted on a pinion shaft 38. The housing 16, 17, 18, 20 is provided with a coin-receiving slot 36 at its upper end (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The housing may also have a currency-receiving pocket 39, a currency-receiving slot 46 being provided in the back wall 18 through which folded paper money may be inserted into the pocket 39.

A coin chute assembly 40 is provided having branches 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45 for dimes, pennies, nickels, quarters and half dollars respectively. The coin chute assembly 49 is located directly behind the partition 19 and the partition has coin reception openings 71, 72, 73, 74 and for dimes, pennies, nickels, quarters and half dollars respectively, the opening 71 being of such size as to receive a dime but nothing larger, the opening 72 being large enough to receive a penny but nothing larger, and so on.

The coin chute branches 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45 lead to coin-receving pockets 51, 52, 53, 54 and 55 for dimes, pennies, nickels, quarters and half dollars respectively. The bottom wall 17 and its floor 47 may be removably positioned with respect to the rest of the housing for my coin transfer bank and provided with suitable locks to normally retain it in position until such time as a desired quantity of coins has been accumulated and it is desirable to remove them to place them in a savings bank. The removal of the bottom wall 17 also permits access to the currrency-receiving pocket 39.

Practical operation In the operation of my coin transfer bank, a coin may be deposited through the slot 36 and the crank 26 then rotated to transfer the coin from disc to disc until such time as the coin matches a coin-receiving opening in the partition 19 and falls therethrough, then travels down the chute branch for that opening to the coin-receiving pocket. By way of example, a nickel (N) has been deposited in FIG. 4 whereupon the train of gears and discs is rotated by the crank 26. This results in rotation of the discs 11 and 12 as shown by arrows, and when the notch 21 is in position to receive the nickel it will do so as in FIG. 5. The nickel will be carried counterclockwise, and supported by the coin-supporting flange 61 until the notches 21 and 22 match again as in FIG. 6, whereupon the nickel will slide by gravity out of the notch 21 into the notch 22.

Further rotation as in FIG. 7 will permit the nickel to be supported by the flange 62 and then slide from the notch 22 into the notch 23 whereupon further counterclockwise rotation of the disc 13 will bring the nickel to the position shown in FIG. 8 where it matches the opening 73 and will fall therethrough into the nickel branch 43 of the coin chute assembly 40 and eventually find its way into the coin-receiving pocket 53 for nickels.

From the foregoing description it will be obvious that the rotation of the meshing gears and the transfer of the nickel back and forth until it reaches its proper chute branch provides an interesting display of mechanical movements in which the coin can be observed through the transparent gears, discs and partition 19 as the transfer operation takes place and the coin gravitates down the proper chute into the proper coin-receiving pocket. Dimes will be relatively quickly disposed of whereas half dollars will travel the maximum zig-zag path before being deposited in the half dollar coin-receiving pocket 55.

A more expensive model of my coin transfer bank may be provided according to FIG. 9 by powering the shaft 38 with an electric motor. This is illustrated in a modified form of the invention shown in FIG. 9 wherein the motor is indicated 56 and the shaft 3812. A speed reducer 57 is interposed between the motor and the shaft, and a pinion and gear arrangement 58-59 drives a timing cam 60 provided to close a normally open shunt switch 65. The motor 56 may be powered by a battery 67 and its initial energization controlled by coin-engaging contacts 66 which close the circuit Whenever a coin is inserted through the coin-receiving slot 36-. Thereupon the gears and discs will commence rotating and the cam 60 will close the shunt switch 65 and hold it closed for a predetermined number of revolutions and then open the circuit again. Such predetermined number of revolutions would obviously be in excess of that required to transfer half dollars from the coin-receiving slot 36 to the half dollar receiving opening 75.

In FIG. 3 the coins of different denominations are shown in their respective coin-receiving pockets and indicated H for half dollars, N for nickels, D for dimes, P for pennies and Q for quarters.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of my coin transfer bank without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may reasonably be included within their scope.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a coin transfer bank, a series of successively meshing gears arranged in a plane at an angle to the vertical, each gear having a coin carrying disc provided With a notch to receive any one of a plurality of coins of different denominations, the peripheries of successive discs being adjacent each other and their notches matching each other during rotation of said gears and discs, said gears and discs being arranged in said plane at progressively lower altitudes whereby a coin will be transferred by gravity from the notch of one disc to the notch of the next lower disc during such rotation, a plurality of coin-receiving pockets for coins of different demoninations, a coin chute assembly leading thereto and having a branch for each coin size, said branches having coin-receiving openin-gs for each coin size and each cooperating with one of said discs and its coin-receiving notch to receive a coin corresponding to its respective opening size.

2. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 1 wherein said gears, discs, coin-receiving pockets, and coin chute assembly are provided with a housing for supporting them, said housing having a coin-receiving slot to convey coins to the coin-receiving notch in the uppermost one of said discs.

3. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 2 wherein said housing includes a partition back of said gears and discs, and coin supporting flanges between said partition and the front of said housing.

4. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 3 wherein said coin chute assembly is located behind said partition and said coin-receiving openings of said coin chute branches are provided in said partition.

5. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 2 wherein the front of said housing and said gears are transparent and permit observance of the action of said gears and discs and the travel of coins in the notches and from notch to notch of said discs.

6. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 5 wherein said partition is also transparent to permit observance of the travel of the coins down said branches of said coin chute assembly to said coin-receiving pockets.

7. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 2 wherein a crank is provided for manually rotating said gears and discs.

8. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 2 wherein an electric motor is provided to rotate said gears and discs, and automatic control means is provided to energize said motor upon insertion of a coin in said coinreceiving slot.

9. A coin transfer bank in accordance with claim 8 wherein said automatic control means includes a normally open switch closed by rotation of said motor which is operable to keep said motor energized during a predetermined number of rotations of said gears and discs and open the circuit of said motor upon completion of said predetermined number of rotations.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 686,074 11/1901 Holzmann 194102 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,392 4/ 1905 Great Britain.

ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner.

S. H. TOLLBERG, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A COIN TRANSFER BANK, A SERIES OF SUCCESSIVELY MESHING GEARS ARRANGED IN A PLANE AT AN ANGLE TO THE VERTICAL, EACH GEAR HAVING A COIN CARRYING DISC PROVIDED WITH A NOTCH TO RECEIVE ANY ONE OF A PLURALITY OF COINS OF DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS, THE PERIPHERIES OF SUCCESSIVE DISCS BEING ADJACENT EACH OTHER AND THEIR NOTCHES MATCHING EACH OTHER DURING ROTATION OF SAID GEARS AND DISCS, SAID GEARS AND DISCS BEING ARRANGED IN SAID PLANE AT PROGRESSIVELY LOWER ALTITUDES WHEREBY A COIN WILL BE TRANSFERRED BY GRAVITY FROM THE NOTCH OF ONE DISC TO THE NOTCH OF THE NEXT LOWER DISC DURING SUCH ROTATION, A PLURALITY OF COIN-RECEIVING POCKETS FOR COINS OF DIFFERENT DEMONINATIONS, A COIN CHUTE ASSEMBLY LEADING THERETO AND HAVING A BRANCH FOR EACH COIN SIZE, SAID BRANCHES HAVING COIN-RECEIVING OPENINGS FOR EACH COIN SIZE AND EACH COOPERATING WITH ONE OF SAID DISCS AND ITS COIN-RECEIVING NOTCH TO RECEIVE A COIN CORRESPONDING TO ITS RESPECTIVE OPENING SIZE. 